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otnemeM

Memento is a movie that came out in 2000 starring Guy Pearce. Guy plays a character name Leonard that is trying to avenge the murder of his wife. The movie can be a bit confusing to follow at times because it consists of two different story lines that eventually meet and complete the plot for you. It starts with scenes that are in black and white and in chronological order and then continue with color scenes that are in reverse chronological order. You find out that Leonard suffers from anterograde amnesia due to being beaten in the head by his wife's attackers. He is unable to form new memories so he creates a series of ways to remember what's going on when we wakes up, one of them being tattoos on himself. After reading the psychology book I conclude that his ability to form explicit memories has been affected while his implicit memories are still intact. I came to this conclusion based on the fact that he is still able to function normally and hasn't lost any motor skills. If you compare the character Leonard to the case of Clive Wearing it's safe to say that it's not exactly an accurate portrayal of anterograde amnesia. Leonard believes everything that is tattooed on him and is able to figure out what he's doing and why. Clive did not believe what was written in his journal even though it was his own handwriting.
Here is a picture of the tattoo reminders he leaves himself.

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6 Comments

Your analysis including your tie into the psychology lectures are very interesting and I like how you did it. His explicit memory for sure has been completely wiped out but his implicit memory such as the knowledge how to drive a car which he does in the movie sticks with him even though he cannot remember how he learned it. Another connection you mentioned is Clive. The video we watched of him was hard to watch because he truly believed he did not write the notes he put in his notebook even if he wrote one 5 minutes ago. It is clearly his handwriting but he doesn't want to believe it. But the lady he talks to he absolutely loves. It would be interesting if when he lost his memory and could only remember a negative memory from a long time ago before he couldn't gain new memories.Say he was very angry at her. Would he forever be angry at her?

I haven't seen this movie, but it does sound like it may not be an accurate model of anterograde amnesia. I would have not even noticed that it wasn't accurate if you hadn't mentioned Clive Wearing's case of anterograde amnesia. Because of this comparison between the two people, I am able to see why the movie Memento may not be so accurate. I think that these movies are often slightly inaccurate because without these small variations from the truth, the might not be so interesting. It sounds like the tattoos are a main part of the movie, and without them the plot would probably be very different and maybe a little less entertaining.

I watched this movie last summer, when I didn't know a whole lot about what would be causing him to forget things so quickly. It is really interesting that this man tattoos his body to "remember" what happened. In the movie, he also leaves notes everywhere and keeps a picture of the man he is after with him at all times. I agree that this is not very realistic, because if he had the same symptoms as Clive Wearing, he would not be able to know that the notes left throughout his room were from him. He might just wake up confused and distraught when he saw notes written everywhere in his handwriting, but he has no recollection of writing them. I agree with the comment above that says that without these slight changes to the actual disability, the movie would be a lot less interesting. The character wouldn't want to search for his wife's killer after seeing a few notes, in reality, much less get up every day and try to solve the mystery all over again. But for Hollywood's sake, he has the drive to do this and almost "start over" every day. I am also curious, as someone else mentioned above, what would happen if his last memory was bitter? Would he constantly be angry? He could be perpetually in a bad mood, since many of us aren't in a great mood if we are angry with someone else. It would be interesting to see what would happen and how someone would live their life if that were the case.

First off, very creative title! I first watched this movie with my dad when I was very young, and while I didn't understand it, I found it very entertaining. I watched it again as a senior in high school, was able to understand it, and loved it. I believe that Leonard woke up and did not know that he had written a note to help with his memory, but because his motor skills and basic functioning weren't harmed, he was able to leave the notes in places that he knew he would visit, such as his bed stand and the bathroom sink. I agree with the comment above. It is hard to believe that Leonard wouldn't constantly be agitated or angry with his condition.

it would be interesting to meet someone with anterograde amnesia. when i was in seventh grade, i had a friend on my traveling basketball team that hit his head during a game. it turned out he had a concussion, because later that day he started asking the same questions over and over again. it seems his ability to create memory had been hampered, which isn't entirely similar to anterograde amnesia but it's generally close. this looks like a very interesting movie! i'm going to have to check it out sometime.

This is very interesting. Though, when you mentioned that this isn't an accurate portrayal of anterograde amnesia because of the man Clive, I wonder if that's a fair statement. Isn't the reason we study Clive is because he is such an extreme and great to use as an example because he shows the symptoms so well? I wonder if someone only slightly affected by this would still be this way or if they would be like in the movie. I agree there are some plot holes, like immediately believing what's tattooed on his body. However, I think it is very impressive to be able to recognize and label exactly what type of mental disorder is affecting him.